Anthony was one of the three creators of Star Refrigeration, and held the position of Managing Director from 1970 until his retirement in 1997. He remained as a director and continued to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors until handing over to John Rowell in 2015. He was responsible for many of the innovative ways in which Star was set up and which continue to apply to our working lives, including his strong focus on health and safety and his belief that all staff should be treated equally and fairly. These convictions were born out of his experiences in management in his previous employer, L Sterne and Co, which had a very bureaucratic and hierarchical structure that frequently led to firing and re-hiring staff as work ebbed and flowed, and was the cause of regular labour disputes. He was adamant that “his” company would not be like that.
Anthony received his engineering degree from the University of Cambridge in 1958 and joined L Sterne and Co as an apprentice, working as Sales
Manager and then Sales Director for the Industrial Division. His family’s connections with L Sterne and Co go right back to the formation of the company in 1882 when Anthony’s great-grandfather, James Beale, was appointed as chairman of the new business venture created when Louis Sterne bought the assets of his business partner William Thomson, including the Crown Iron Works factory in north west Glasgow. Anthony’s great-uncle, Samuel Beale, joined the company in 1903 as an apprentice and was appointed as acting general manager in 1905 due to the ill-health of the manager. Anthony’s father, Peter Brown, joined the company in 1925 and was appointed as a director in 1934. As an apprentice, Peter worked on the installation of a small ammonia system serving a house in Perthshire as a heatpump, acknowledged to be the first domestic heat pump in the world. It used river water as the source of heat and was powered by hydro-electricity. Peter was the first chairman of Star Refrigeration, serving in that role from 1970 to 1982 when Anthony took over from him.
Anthony was also very supportive of the Institute of Refrigeration, serving many years in a behind-the-scenes role on the Finance Committee and more publicly as President of the Institute from 1992 to 1994. He was always keen to encourage younger members of staff to get involved in Institute activities and he was one of the founding members of the Institute’s Scottish branch, serving as branch chairman from 1988 to 1990 and receiving the Kooltech award in 1997. The number of Star employees who engage in Institute committees and other industry activities is a direct result of his commitment and enthusiasm.
In Sterne’s magazine of March 1961 a profile of Anthony noted that “His greatest pleasure is bicycling home from work. On those occasions when he isn’t working, he likes to go far away from other people – up mountains, photographing birds, or even gardening. When others must be around, he is happy eating sweet, sticky cakes.”
Those of you who knew Anthony will appreciate the influence that he had on the business and the wider community through his wit and wisdom, his boundless enthusiasm, his love of technology and new ideas and his care and compassion for those alongside him, whoever they were. If you never had the pleasure of meeting him ask a colleague for their memories of him – I am sure there will be many happy stories to tell.
